


Tangled Up in Red

by Lirillith



Category: Tiger & Bunny
Genre: Developing Relationship, F/M, First Kiss, Friends to Lovers, M/M, Multi, OT3, Red String of Fate
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-15
Updated: 2014-08-17
Packaged: 2018-02-13 07:56:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 19,938
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2143107
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lirillith/pseuds/Lirillith
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When a chance encounter with a NEXT binds Kotetsu, Barnaby, and Karina with the red thread of fate — literally — they have no choice but to face some facts about their relationship they've left unspoken for years.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [inverts](https://archiveofourown.org/users/inverts/gifts).



> Based (albeit kind of loosely based, in the end) on [this fanart](http://inverts.tumblr.com/post/74110404688/please-imagine-bunny-and-karina-blaming-each-other) by my wonderful recipient, this fic kind of got out of hand, but I hope you enjoy the result!
> 
> I'm eternally in debt to Quicksilver_ink for beta-ing and cheerleading as my deadlines loomed.

Kotetsu noticed the slight tug on his left hand for the first time just after breakfast, as he saluted Tomoe's photo and polished off the last of his morning coffee. He set the coffee mug down on the sideboard-credenza thing and lifted his hand to take a look, and he saw a flash of red on his hand, at the base of his finger, beneath his ring. He slid the ring up, and just for a moment he saw it — perfectly ordinary cheap cotton twine like you'd find tied to a balloon, but bright red — and then he blinked and it was gone. He rubbed the finger, but all he encountered was that slightly smooth and sweaty feeling where his ring had rested. No string. Weird.

He forgot all about it as he finished his morning routine — cereal bowl in the sink, tie in place, call bracelet on, final check of his hair — until he was almost at the door and he felt another tug. No string this time, but he'd glanced back and noticed his forgotten coffee mug. Right in front of one of Tomoe's photos, where she definitely wouldn't approve. _It's not that it's that much trouble, but all these little things add up!_ he heard, from one of their early-cohabitation fights (or maybe a dozen different ones; they'd gone round and round a lot.) He ferried it back to the kitchen sink, rinsed it out, stuck it in the drying rack. Then he finally left.

The tug feeling didn't come back as he drove. It was probably some kind of nerve twinge or something. Maybe he was getting carpal tunnel syndrome and he'd never type again! That sure would be awful. They'd have to hire someone to do his paperwork for him. He was whistling when he got to the office.

Bunny wasn't there; he was recording ad spots for something they didn't want Kotetsu anywhere near. Skincare or shampoo or something. Razors. Tight jeans. He sat down in his chair, half-surprised that Barbara hadn't asked why he was in such a good mood or glowered at him for whistling, and logged into his computer; the whistling died a natural death. While he was waiting for the computer to finish waking up, he pulled out his phone. He'd forgotten he'd changed the wallpaper the night before. It was him and Bunny, with him flashing a V with his fingers and Bunny looking kind of startled, probably because Kotetsu had given him no warning at all. He felt that weird twinge again, like a tug or a squeeze, but it was more around his pinkie this time.

A text from Bunny, confirming they'd meet at the training center and head out for lunch. He always used full sentences and punctuation and everything in his texts. Kind of crazy. Kotetsu liked to think his own free-spirited texting style was just proof he was young at heart, even if Karina liked to say he texted like a stoned chimpanzee, and he liked to say she must be getting a lot of texts from stoned chimps if she could tell, and then Bunny liked to tell them they were both acting like children to shut them up.

Both his hands were feeling kind of pinched, actually. "Hey, Barb, d'you know the symptoms of carpal tunnel?"

They typing sounds stopped. She'd leaned to the side to look at him around her monitor. "The only people who get carpal tunnel are the ones who type too much."

"Yeah, exactly!"

"That was a subtle suggestion," she explained.

"Yeah, but..." She just kept looking at him. "I guess I got a lot waiting for me, huh?"

"You might say that."

Yeah, there were a bunch of boldfaced emails in his inbox. Some from Lloyds. Some from Agnes. One or two from the Justice Department. Kotetsu stared them down for a second or two, then opened up his browser and typed in "carpal tunnel symptoms."

 

There was only so much procrastinating one man could do, though, even one who'd spent as long honing his skills as Kotetsu had, and without Bunny there to harass, tease, text, and throw things at, Kotetsu actually got most of his work done on time, or close enough to on-time that Barbara looked grudgingly pleased when he handed her his neat little stack of filled-out forms. "You seem to be holding up pretty well," she said.

"Huh? Oh! Hands, yeah. Beats me. Never happened before this morning. Who knows."

From the way she eyed him, he figured she thought he'd been making it all up — which just went to show you she didn't know him, because when he faked sick to get off school he'd been way better than that — but he'd probably have been suspicious too. It was kind of weird. Just a passing thing, he figured.

At least, that was what he figured until he got to the training center. No one seemed to be around, so he pulled out his phone to text Bunny again. He'd held off all morning — it just pissed Bunny off to have a bunch of pointless texts waiting when he'd been doing something that kept him from checking his phone, and not the fun kind of pissing him off like when Kotetsu texted him from five feet away — but they might as well touch base, see if Bunny had been held up, brag a little about getting his work done so fast...

...feel a pressure around his left pinky finger out of nowhere?

The door to the lounge hissed open just then, and he glanced up. Fire Emblem, with Blue Rose right behind him. "Hell-ohhh, Tiger," Fire Emblem said. "Did you get stood up?"

"Nah, Bunny's got an ad for something metrosexual today. Moisturizer or leather jackets or something."

"Body wash," Blue Rose said. "He corrected you like five times last night." She shook her left hand out like she'd just punched something.

"Yeah, well... I was close. Hey, is your hand bothering you?"

"Kinda. Why?"

"Mine is too. Both hands,” he added, since his right pinkie was feeling weird too. “Dunno if I'm allergic to my phone now or what."

"I'll leave you two alone," Fire Emblem said. "Busy day today! Make sure she eats lunch, Tiger, okay? Toodles!" He booked it for the weights, not like Kotetsu was going to refuse to feed Blue Rose or anything.

"Jeez, you skip one meal..." She rubbed her left hand with her right. "Maybe it's a power of suggestion thing. Like how we all kept freaking out after we had to fight that spider NEXT."

That alone made the back of his neck feel funny, and Kotetsu didn't bother fighting the urge to reach up and rub it; it made her laugh, after all. "Could be," he said, because if he told her thought he saw some red string tied around her left pinkie she'd think he was nuts. And she'd probably be right.

 

They both had their own training to do, and focusing on that took Kotetsu's mind off weird string hallucinations and pinched nerves. He wasn't all obsessive about it like Antonio — except when he went through spurts of being all competitive — but he had to admit he liked the way he felt after a really good workout. Whatever they called it, some kind of brain chemical. Morphine or something. 

He was getting dressed in the locker room when Bunny came in. The pinch around his finger made him think he'd caught it in a stray thread of his shirt, but there was nothing there when he looked. "Hey, Bunny," he called by way of greeting. "What do they call that thing you get after a workout, dolphin something?  Morphine?"

"Endorphins," Bunny said. "You're thinking of an endorphin rush."

"Yeah, that! Hey, you mind if Blue Rose joins us for lunch?"

Bunny pulled the ring off his index finger and then flexed his fingers, clenched his fist and extended the fingers again, then repeated the process for his left hand. "I suppose not," he said, finally.

"Aw, c'mon, you know you two always have fun once we finally agree on a place to eat."

"That's the part of the process I was hoping to skip."

"And if you ask me you enjoy the arguing about it, too. Like an old married couple..."

Bunny just sighed audibly, so Kotetsu went to the mirror to straighten his tie preparatory to getting the hell out of Dodge. Bunny might not be that pissy yet, but he’d get there in a hurry if Kotetsu kept hanging around being Kotetsu. He just needed to get his training done with, get his endorphing rush and a shower and clear his head.

So he was a little surprised to hear Barnaby ask, "You were married, Kotetsu. Did you and your wife argue like I argue with Blue Rose?"

"You kiddin'? All. The. Time. Hell, when we were in high school I'd piss her off on purpose because it was the surest way to get her attention. And once we got married, man... she was a neat freak like you, and you know what a slob I am. So she was always on my case about picking up after myself, eating right, that kinda stuff."

Bunny was looking at him a little oddly. His left ring finger felt like his ring was too tight, almost, and his left pinky felt pinched too. “What?”

“That was unexpected. I always thought you didn’t like talking about your late wife.”

"I don't like talking about the sad stuff," he said. "Doesn't mean I don't want to talk about her ever." He didn't dare to look at his own hand, but his glance fell on Bunny's hands, held in loose fists at his sides, and there it was; a piece of red string, tied around his right index finger where the black ring usually was, extending away from him in Kotetsu's general direction.

"Since you never bring her up, I just assumed— I didn't realize—" Bunny cleared his throat. "I apologize for bringing up the subject. I wasn't thinking."

"Hey, it's okay! Like I said, it's just the sad stuff— Hell, sometimes I miss talking about her. You know?”

“You can always— If you feel like talking about her, I’m happy to listen. Someone who was such a huge part of your life— I can’t help but be curious.”

“Yeah, I guess— it’s kind of funny talking about her to you, y’know? You and her would have either gotten along like a house on fire or hated each other." That was always the way with people who were a lot alike. Like Bunny and Blue Rose. “I’m out of practice at it, though. I mean.” He cleared his throat. Here he was getting choked up right after he’d said he wanted to talk about her. This was just a weird day for it, that was all. "I meant to call Kaede while you and Rose finished training. I should get out of here. Let you change."

Bunny nodded, and Kotetsu brushed past him on his way out. It wasn't until the locker room door shushed closed behind him that he lifted his left hand to take a look. Sure enough, there they were; red strings tied around his left ring finger, just under the ring, and his left pinkie. The one around his pinkie stretched behind him, vanishing in the crack of the locker room door, while the one around his ring finger lifted skyward like it was tethering an invisible helium balloon, going invisible itself a couple of feet above his head.

Experimentally, he took a couple of steps away from the locker room door; he didn't feel any drag like he was pulling it through the crack of a tightly closed door, he didn't feel it tighten uncomfortably like he was running out of slack, and he didn't see the tension of the string change any. He backed a few more steps away from the door, then moved closer to it again; still no change in the slack of the string. But the door did slide open in front of him. Bunny, kneeling down to tie his shoelaces, glanced up at Kotetsu questioningly.

"Uh... sorry, I thought I forgot something... and then I realized I had it after all!" He laughed awkwardly and resumed backing up until the door closed again.

And then he smacked himself in the forehead with a groan. He hadn't even bothered to notice if he still saw the string on Bunny's hand. His was gone now, too.

NEXT power, he decided. Had to be. But at least it wasn't spiders this time.

 

* * *

 

After the door closed behind Kotetsu for the second time in under five minutes, Barnaby glanced down at his arm again. It was still there; a piece of red string, seemingly as cheap and flimsy as anything you'd find stapled to a tea bag, tied around his right index finger just under the place the ring would be.

Earlier that day, during a break on set, Barnaby had checked his phone, seen Kotetsu's picture (still his wallpaper after all these years, though of course every time he tried to change it the old man just changed it to a new one) and felt a pressure, as though his ring had grown smaller, or his hand had swollen; it hadn't recurred until he reached the training center, when he walked into the locker room to find Kotetsu getting dressed. During the conversation that followed, he'd felt it again, a kind of pressure encircling his right index finger and then, more noticeably since he never wore a ring on it, his left as well.

But it wasn't until Kotetsu left the room the first time that he finally looked at his right hand — still feeling compressed, though he'd removed the ring — that he saw the string, tied in a bow around his finger, and leading from it out of the locker room to where it was caught in the door. He immediately reached for it with his left hand, which just passed through where the string should be; it might have been a thin but focused jet of air or water, seeming to twist out of his grasp. When he tried to get hold of it with his right hand, however, he had no problems; it felt like ordinary cotton string, and when he tried to reel it in, he could do so without trouble.

Pulling on it didn't seem to make any difference in its physical properties, though. It didn't become taut as he looped it around his forearm, it didn't threaten to snap, and there just seemed to be more of it as he pulled it in. He thought of trying to snap it, but it seemed to connect him to Kotetsu, and it was never a good idea to be hasty. The two of them could talk about it soon; he might as well finish changing, and then follow up.

Except that after he'd changed, and Kotetsu had popped back into the locker room and back out, the thread seemed to have disappeared. Strange, but if the thread had any connection to the odd sensation of compression he'd had earlier that morning, perhaps it would come back.

He had enough experience of hallucinating to tentatively rule that out as a possibility. A NEXT power seemed likeliest, and while it was both odd and potentially sinister, he found it difficult to get too alarmed. Whatever it was demonstrated that he and Kotetsu shared a bond. That was hardly news. Having it rendered tangible was unexpected, and it could potentially go awry — if severing the string caused memory loss or some other damage to their relationship, for example — but so far all he'd seen was that the string appeared and disappeared unexpectedly without seeming to affect his feelings for Kotetsu in the least. Harmless, then, like so many NEXT powers.

He could almost pinpoint the source. The night before, he and Kotetsu and Blue Rose had recorded some performance scenes for a BTB video — Titan wanted to make it a summer tradition — and he and Kotetsu had gone to speak to some of the fans who were watching at the perimeter of the set while Karina posed for photos. One of them, when he'd shaken her hand, had glowed blue briefly. She'd apologized profusely — _this is so embarrassing, it happens sometimes and I don't even know what it does_ — and he'd reassured her that NEXT powers were sometimes slow to emerge and hard to control. He'd thought that was that.

A shame he hadn't signed an autograph, he thought. A first name would at least give him a lead on finding her. But if she really didn't know what her power did, she wouldn't be able to give him any information he didn't already have, and explaining the nature of her power it to her would potentially be gravely embarrassing. When he'd begun life as a hero, he hadn't seen any point to maintaining his own privacy; now that he saw the value of it, he preferred to safeguard what little he had left. The way he felt about his partner was his own business, and no one else's.

The way he felt about his partner, and the way he felt about the third point on their little triangle. Karina was on the treadmill when he finished his warmup. He knew her routine almost as well as his own and Kotetsu’s, so that meant she was near the end of her workout. Stern Bild’s resident sex symbol, yet she looked better to him in sweaty gym clothes and a messy ponytail than in a costume carefully designed for mass appeal.

He selected the treadmill next to her, and punched it up to a speed just a hair above her usual; as she huffed a greeting at him, he saw her press one of the buttons on the control panel. He stifled a grin as the whine of her treadmill intensified to match his. There was a squeezing around his finger, but he didn't see a string when he looked down. No matter what Kotetsu believed, bickering and teasing plus a measure of physical attraction did not add up to love, or even to desperate sexual tension. "You're late," she said.

"Traffic," he responded, a verbal shrug. "I'm surprised you're still here."

"Nearly done," she said, as he already knew. "You joining us for lunch?"

A return jab for the treadmill, maybe, but it also just proved how much she'd grown up over the past year or two. Not long ago she would have been incapable of acting so casual about lunch with Kotetsu; she might very well have avoided it rather than let on that she wanted to spend time with him.

"I'd have to cut my workout short,” Barnaby said. “You two go ahead."

"You sure?"

Maybe it was the red string; when you could actually see and touch your bond with someone, even just momentarily, it was harder to feel your relationship was threatened. Maybe it was Kotetsu's talk about bickering married couples, and his own desire to prove the old man wrong. Maybe it was just the appeal of an empty gym and the chance to work off some tension in peace, with no partner whining that he was hungry, no girlish laughter to distract him. "I'm sure. The two of you should go get sushi at that place I don’t like.”

"Huh." She didn't say anything more. Barnaby listened to the thud of their feet, her breathing and his own, the drone of the treadmills, and the gradual winding down of hers. She stepped off the machine, and he listened to the rustling as she dried her face. He was half-expecting her when she came to stand in front of him.

"What's up with you?" she asked. "Normally you'd, like..."

It was hard to shrug while running. "Shouldn't you be jumping at the chance?"

"Shut up!" For a girl who fought crime in a cross between a bathing suit and fetish wear, she still blushed remarkably easily.

He hopped off the treadmill without bothering to power it down. "Maybe I'm just sick of Kotetsu making assumptions."

"Assumptions about what?"

"He's _still_ convinced I'm pursuing you. He probably thinks that if I refuse to leave the two of you alone, it's out of jealousy. Over you."

She gave an incredulous snicker. "Seriously? _Me?"_

"Arguing like an old married couple. Teasing you like a boy pulling a girl's pigtails on the playground."

"He thinks it's me you're into."

"And he may think I'm the reason you spend time with the two of us."

"Oh my god," she said, laughing.

"You mean you really never picked up on his hints?"

"No? Oh my god. Wow. That's hilarious."

"So go have sushi. I doubt it'll change his mind, but I just want to finish my workout. I'll buy a sandwich later and go by the office."

"Okay, well, have fun with that," she said. She was still giggling to herself as she walked off.

He jumped back onto the treadmill, hands on the bars. He felt a sinking in the pit of his stomach when he saw a red bow on his left index finger.

He’d have to make a point of speaking to multiple people today, he decided. People he knew. NEXTs and non-NEXTs alike. Who knew what triggered this manifestation, after all? It was far too soon to draw any conclusions.

 

* * *

 

"Hilarious" wasn't quite the right word for Tiger's idea of matchmaking, but Karina wasn't about to backtrack to try to work out a better one when Barnaby was practically shoving her out of the gym. Something was obviously bothering him, but it was a pretty safe bet it involved Tiger, and she didn't get in the middle of that unless it was serious.

No, she knew all about Tiger's idea that she had a crush on Barnaby. She had for a long time. The fact he thought it was mutual was new, and that was where it got funny, when Barnaby had been in love with him — almost as obviously as Karina was herself — for years now, and Kotetsu apparently had no clue about _either_ of them. It almost took talent to be that wrong, like he was coming up with the most ass-backwards ideas just to avoid seeing the truth.

Back when he'd first started acting like she had a thing for Barnaby, she'd hated his guts. Barnaby's, more than Kotetsu's; as much as Tiger used to get on her nerves, and still did plenty of times, he was a hard guy to hate. Barnaby had gotten better, over time; a lot better, recently. He could be kind of a pain in the ass, but so could Nathan and Pao-lin. Friends teased each other. And they probably were friends. It wasn't that far off-base. They were in it together, with "it" being "putting up with Tiger."

So if you ignored the whole thing where they were both in love with the same person, she could kind of see where the idea would come from.

God, what if Tiger did have a clue, and he was just trying to shove the two of them together to get them off his hands? Her whole body went cold at that, despite the heat of the shower; not her powers acting up, just a moment's terror. But no. Kotetsu's approach to getting inside a building was to knock down a wall. He wouldn't come up with anything that subtle. And hell, at this point, it'd practically be a relief for him to figure out how she felt. Or how Barnaby felt. Or both. No matter how he took it. Just to clear the air, since neither of them could get it together to tell him and ruin a friendship.

Ruin two friendships. Because if Tiger and Barnaby were an item, Karina wouldn't be able to be around either of them for a while, let alone both at once, and she was pretty sure Barnaby would feel the same if she and Tiger got together instead. It'd bother her. She didn't know if it'd bother him, but he was a lot more human than he liked to let on, so maybe.

In street clothes, hair dried, she rushed out into the training center lounge; Kotetsu, like she should have expected, was on the phone, probably talking to Kaede. He caught her eye and smiled, which had the predictable effect on her heartrate and knees and innards in general, but also made her pinkie finger feel pinched, hard enough she almost winced. Which was weird, because it had been ring finger bugging her while she was talking to Barnaby. And both on her left hand, not her right like she might have expected.

Probably coincidence, she told herself, as she went over to him. “Blue Rose is here,” he said into the phone. “Want me to put you on speaker?”

“Hi, Karina!” Kaede had come a long way from the girl who used to call her Ms. Blue Rose.

“Hey, Kaede! What’s up?”

 

Karina half expected the conversation with Kaede to last until Barnaby was ready to join them, too — deliberately on Tiger's part or not — but there was still no sign of him when Kaede left to do her homework. Kotetsu stood, stretching extensively.

"Hard to believe she's nearly the age you were when you got started," he said.

She'd been talking about starting high school — that was usually ninth grade, or tenth? "Her birthday's in October, right?"

"She's turning fifteen."

She nodded, since there was nothing else she could really do. A few years ago, even admitting she liked Kotetsu was unthinkable. She just had those feelings, and no idea what to do with them; she knew she was too young for him, she knew it'd never happen, but she still got jealous when he flirted with radio hosts or mentioned a favorite actress, still hated to be reminded that she was only six years older than his daughter. And now, nothing had changed, except that they were friends, and they were all older, and every time she said anything about how long she'd been a hero or how old she was, she felt like Barnaby was smirking.

And then before she could try to change the subject, maybe bring up college to remind Kotetsu she wasn't in high school anymore, her stomach rumbled audibly, and her face immediately caught fire. She covered her belly defensively with both hands, like that was going to muffle it.

He grinned, and rattled his keys in his pocket. "Let's go get you fed," he said.

"All I had for breakfast was a thing of yogurt!" she protested. "At like five in the morning!"

"Hey, it's nearly one. I'm hungry too."

"And then I had a meeting with my choreographer on top of training!"

"Why are you getting so mad?"

No, nothing had changed at all.

 

It seemed to be on his mind, too, as they drove down a stage to the sushi place Barnaby unaccountably disliked. "It's weird," he said, eyes on the lane he was merging into. "When I first met you, I figured you were... the age you are now, I guess."

"Well, at first we weren't letting on how old Blue Rose really was, you know?" Eventually they'd given up on that; she'd slipped up and mentioned school in a couple of interviews, and Robert had decided that dropping the pretense would make her more relatable.

"Yeah, but... I guess that's true. Once I saw you out of costume I believed it."

" _Thanks,_ Tiger."

"I didn't mean you look fifteen now! You looked fifteen when you were fifteen!"

"Hmmph."

"Though when you get to be my age you'll be pretty happy to have someone think you look younger than you really are."

"I'm working on my 'mature new sound,' remember?" That was from the review of their last BTB single, and it was the mildly terrifying specter hanging over her next album. "The last thing I need is to look like a teenager."

"But you don't," he said, and off her frustrated huff and crossed arms, continued, "I mean it! I noticed it when I first came back from retirement."

"That was three years ago."

"Well _yeah,_ but just the other day I was looking at pictures I'd taken. You've really grown up a lot, you know? And it's not just looks, either. I look back on me, when I was twenty-one, and I was just some dumbass kid. But you... you've really got your act together."

When she looked up at him, he was smiling, crookedly, and she felt her heart speed up painfully. That was the worst thing about him; he was terrible at saying what you wanted to hear, so when he finally did stumble into saying the right thing, it meant so much more than if he'd actually been smooth about it.

And of course, like she always did when they got within shouting distance of having a moment, she panicked and started mumbling, "Well, I, um. I kinda..." And then she looked down at her hand and yelped.

"Wha—!" Kotetsu slammed on the brakes, and Karina heard horns behind them. "What happened? Are you okay?"

It was gone, as suddenly as it had appeared. "I'm fine," she said shakily. "You can keep driving, don't worry."

"You don't _sound_ fine," he said, but he let the car creep forward, catching up with the usual slow crawl of traffic. "Seriously, what happened?"

"You slammed on the brakes and people started honking at us," she said. He shot her a look, and sure, she was being flippant, but that had shaken her up almost as much as hallucinating had. "I thought I saw something... it's nothing. It just freaked me out for a second, that's all."

"What'd you see?"

She shook her head slightly. She needed to keep her eyes on her left hand, but that was ridiculous; it was just some weird vision thing, like when you saw sparkles at the edge of your vision because you were light-headed. She'd seen something red, and her hand, and her mind had made it into a string tied around her finger to make sense of it.

"Was it a..." He cleared his throat. "Was it a red string on your hand?"

 

* * *

 

That, Kotetsu reflected over a plate of sushi, was easily the stupidest thing he'd said in the past week or so, because while he'd reassured Karina that she wasn't going crazy or anything, she had all kinds of questions, most of which he didn't want to answer. And unlike Bunny, she didn't give up, or let him change the subject to complaining about traffic, and they were stuck in the car for a good forty-five minutes.

Fortunately, she was half-starved by the time they got to the restaurant, and she'd applied herself to snagging sushi off the conveyor belt ever since they got seated. That gave him a little time to think about what he was going to say, and for that matter, what was even going on.

He'd seen the red thread on his own hand. He'd seen it on Bunny's, but he didn't know if Bunny had seen it or not. He hadn't seen it on Karina's hand, but he knew _she'd_ seen it. On her own hand, though not on his.

He'd heard about the red thread of fate idea; Tomoe had liked it a lot, had even suggested working it into their wedding ceremony somehow, though eventually she'd dropped it in favor of getting him to just focus on writing his vows. So he had some idea what was going on here.

Some. Not a lot. Why the hell would he have three strings?

The one on his ring finger, that one was accounted for. That one made perfect sense, all on its own.

The other one, on his left pinkie, that had appeared at the same time as Bunny's had. And he'd definitely felt some pressure, and seen a flash of red on his right pinkie, before Karina squawked back in the car.

So he had one finger-string he could talk about and two he was not going to talk about for anything short of a gun to his head, and since Karina had just popped her first slice of spicy yellowtail roll in her mouth, he needed to start thinking really fast.

So he was caught totally off-guard when she took a sip of her water — she never drank Pepsi if she wasn't being paid for it — and asked him, "So what do you think Barnaby has against this place?"

"Uh," he floundered, then nearly stuck the straw from his soda into his eye. "Not fancy enough?" Which was a stupid guess, since Bunny would eat food from hot dog stands and food trucks without batting an eyelash. "I dunno. Maybe he doesn't like the... track. Belt. Thing."

Karina glanced at the conveyor belt, then stood up and snagged another plate. She only had four already arrayed in front of her.

"You sure you're gonna—" He cut himself off as she placed it in front of him; each slice of the roll was topped with a dollop of mayonnaise, slightly browned on top like it had been cooked. He beamed at the plate, then at her.

"I probably won't finish all of this, but that's what you're here for," she said. "So explain to me about the string."

"Dah!"

"Did you seriously think I was going to forget?"

"I don't know what they're about either!" he protested. It wasn't a total lie.

"They? Like more than one string?"

He popped a roll in his mouth and chewed furiously. Crap. _Spicy_ mayonnaise. She'd sabotaged him. In a couple of ways.

"It's the dynamite roll," she said, smirking. "You did the same thing last time we were here."

"Mmph mmm," he said, which wasn't actually meant to be any words in particular, just a general full-mouthed complaint about smart-ass kids.

"I only saw one string on my hand," she said, his suffering forgotten. "Do you have more?"

 _One_ would make sense. He cooled his burning mouth with a long swallow of soda. "I, uh. It's kind of a long story."

"How is it a long story if you don't know what they're about? 'I don't know' is a pretty short story."

He sighed, and twisted his wedding ring. Without taking his eyes off of it, almost wishing the string would reappear, he said, quietly, "I got one on my left ring finger."

It was weird how silence could totally engulf two people even though you could hear other people talking around you, dishes rattling, restaurant noises everywhere outside your little bubble of quiet; he wouldn't have been surprised if she was holding her breath. He was, for a second.

"Oh," she said, finally, very softly.

"It just kinda... it's almost like it's tied to a balloon, except the balloon's invisible. It just kinda disappears. But it's there. You know?"

"Yeah," she said. He risked a glance at her, away from his hand; she looked just as pretty as she had before they sat down, but a whole lot sadder. He felt like an asshole, and he wasn't sure he'd be any less of one if he told her about the other strings. Maybe more. He needed some time to think.

He needed not to see a string on his right pinkie finger again, now of all times, right when he felt the pressure on his left ring finger. A string there, too, appearing and then disappearing, lnot long enough to even be much of a comfort. Like some kind of cosmic wink. _I could use a little help, Tomoe. How do I fix this?_ She'd just tell him to figure out on his own, though, like she used to do with algebra. If she didn’t get mad at him for being a philandering dolt.

"So," he began, not sure where the sentence was even going to end up, "so that's one of them. Explained. That's an explanation for one of them. But I don't know what the others are about. And I don't want to start running my mouth off until I do."

"If one links you to your wife, though..."

Shit. He'd forgotten how smart she was for a minute there. "Well I mean that's just a guess!"

"It's on the same finger as your wedding ring!"

"Ssh," he warned, not that she was in that much danger of being heard by anybody else. He took another slice of the dynamite roll. It was pretty good when you were expecting the spiciness.

"It's a pretty safe guess," she said, not that much quieter. "So are the others, like... are you," and he actually saw her throat work as she swallowed, "are you seeing anyone?"

A terrifying idea was starting to dawn in the back of his mind and he would have given anything to be at a place where they served alcohol so he could drown it. "I remember why Bunny doesn't like this place," he said. "No beer, no wine, no liquor."

She smacked the counter hard enough to make him jump. "Tiger!"

"I'm not — when would I have time to date anybody? I barely have time to hang out with you and Bunny!"

"Yeah, but what else would these strings mean?"

"What about you? Aren't you likelier to be dating somebody? You're the sexiest woman in Stern Bild, right?"

"Oh my _God,_ " she groaned, pressing her hand to her forehead. She’d taken it a lot better when he’d teased her about that a month ago. "Forget it. You're useless. Just tell me if this stupid string thing is going to kill me or not."

"How should I know? I just started seeing them this morning."

He jumped at the flare of blue even before her water glass frosted over. Angrily, she shoved a piece of sushi in her mouth, and she chewed it angrily, and she swallowed angrily, and then she looked straight at him and glared.

"I promise I'll tell you anything I know!" he whimpered. "I'm sorry!"

"Well _that's_ a lie. You already know more than you're telling me," she said. "These things don't just show up at random. You have to have some idea what's causing them, and you aren't telling me, because you think your feelings are some kind of state secret or something."

"It's, like— It's just—"

"We've been friends for — years now and I don't even know your wife's _name._ "

He winced. It was probably true. Hard to believe he wouldn't have mentioned it once or twice in passing, but it was possible. And the 'years' — like she didn't want to pick a number and have it be wrong.

"Tomoe," he said. "Tomoe Amamiya. She didn't change her last name till she got pregnant with Kaede."

She looked away from him, glancing around the restaurant as she drained her water glass.

"I'm sorry," he said. "I just need some time to think. This thing might even go away on its own, you know?"

"So we'd never know what caused it. Wouldn't that be awesome." But she went back to eating, which he decided, a piece or two of sushi later, meant it was safe for him to eat as well.

He wondered if she'd be more or less likely to kill him if he told her what he thought was going on with the strings. Probably more. She wouldn't like it, that was for damn sure.

 

Eventually she took off, the click of her heels on the tile sounding distinctly angry to him even though she'd laughed at a few of his feeble jokes. Just like usual, she left him roughly two-thirds of the sushi she'd selected and enough cash for half the check plus a generous tip, which never seemed fair to him though he could never talk her out of it.

Now he had his time to think. Wonderful. Not that there was a whole lot to discover. He had strings for her and for Bunny, one for each pinky finger, because he was an equal-opportunity dirty old man. She had a string for... somebody. Maybe him? That seemed kind of crazy, but it'd explain some things. And Bunny. Bunny had a string, and he was like ninety percent sure that it was for him, that their strings actually linked up.

He was so screwed. No wonder the Tomoe string had appeared and disappeared; he could practically hear her, clear as a bell over the sound of slamming locker doors and hallway crowds. _Kotetsu T. Kaburagi, what have you done_ this _time? You're going to have to clean that up yourself._

He wasn't as dumb as he acted, at least not all the time. He'd noticed the way he was starting to feel about Bunny years ago, and Rose a year or two ago. He'd stomped it down and tried to pretend it wasn't there and hoped it'd go away, but he'd noticed. He just hadn't expected it to be visible. What the hell, hands?

"Um, sir?"

"Oh, sorry," he said, lifting his arm to let the waiter clear away the stack of empty plates. "Can I get the check, please?"

He left with his hands deep in his pockets and showing no sign of thread at the moment. He was going to have to tell Karina about it, and Bunny — he needed to ask Bunny about his own string, for that matter — and somebody was bound to get hurt. Possibly him, in the form of frostbite in sensitive areas, because Karina was half his age and he had no business having red-string feelings about her and he had no doubt she knew all that.

They were both his _friends,_ that was the shitty part. He'd been perfectly happy to keep it that way, and now things were going to go all to hell.


	2. Chapter 2

The days when Barnaby considered it a waste of time to socialize with the other heroes were far in the past, but he still didn't, generally, seek people out. He hoped that was the only reason Dragon Kid cast such an odd look at him when he struck up an awkward conversation with her about restaurants in the lounge. The two of them could companionably pummel sparring dummies side-by-side or run through a simulation in competition, but until he landed on the idea of asking her for suggestions, it was impossible for them to discuss lunch plans normally. It might have gone a bit more smoothly if he hadn't spent the entire time watching his hands like a hawk, he realized.

Armed with a list of the best dim sum options in Stern Bild and the knowledge that no rogue red strings had appeared on his hand, Barnaby considered his next move. He considered himself friendly with Origami, but if he'd felt the conversation with the naturally talkative Dragon Kid was strained, approaching Origami would be agonizing. Sky High was unavailable.

"Fire Emblem!"

On his way out the door, Fire Emblem was unquestionably in Nathan Seymour mode at the moment, in a dusty rose bespoke suit with unusually subdued makeup. "Oh, Handsome! I wish I had time to talk."

That was no way to test red string appearance. What had caused it earlier? Kotetsu had been unexpectedly open about his wife; he'd been teasing Karina. "Perhaps we could meet up later on, then. Are you free tonight?"

"Handsome! A date? But people will talk."

Ah yes. Flirtation. "Let them talk," he replied, though he didn't manage to put much spirit in it.

"Ooh. I know _just_ the place, then. I'll send you the details when I've got a moment. Drinks tonight, all right? I'll see you then!" And he was off, leaving Barnaby wondering, as always, exactly how seriously he was taking all this.

But he had no other plans for the night, so at eight, as Fire Emblem had decreed by text, he made his way to a little bar near the edge of the Bronze Stage. An unassuming cinderblock box with no velvet rope or selective bouncers, it didn't look at first glance like Fire Emblem's type of establishment; when Barnaby entered to find sedate wood paneling, soft piano music, and at least one big-screen TV playing a soccer match with the volume low, he remained mystified.

Then his eyes landed on the source of the piano music, on a raised stage near the back of the room. Her hair was swept back in some sort of elaborate braid, and she wore a dark blue dress with a light, short-sleeved bolero. Utterly focused on the music, her face looked serene, for a change, not pulled into a smirk, not beaming or blushing over Kotetsu.

He didn't even need to look at his hand, but he did anyway.

At least that explained why Fire Emblem had chosen this location. He dragged his eyes away from Karina and glanced at the bar; Fire Emblem was watching him, chin on his hand, and when he realized Barnaby was finally looking his way he lifted his other hand in a little wave. No longer a businessman, he was wearing skinny pink jeans and a black tunic or sweater of some kind; whatever he was sipping was decidedly pink and tropical-looking.

"I was wondering what made you choose this bar," he offered, by way of explanation for his distraction. Or by way of face-saving justification, more likely; Fire Emblem was far too perceptive not to have guessed, whether or not he could see the string on Barnaby's index finger.

"Mm," Fire Emblem agreed. "She complains her moonlighting's barely a secret anymore, but it's a nice bar. Quiet, anonymous..."

"If it's barely a secret, who else knows?" Barnaby asked, but all he got in response was an enigmatic smile.

"Tell me what's on your mind, Handsome."

"Ah... nothing, really. Nothing out of the ordinary. Why?"

"You were the one who needed to see me tonight, weren't you?"

Mercifully, the bartender intervened, but flustered selection of a glass of wine later, Barnaby still had no ready answer.

"I know you just can't get enough of me," Fire Emblem said, "but I thought there had to be something else going on."

"It's a bit difficult to explain," he hedged. And these weren't ideal conditions. Even with his back turned to Karina, he could hear her playing; his goal had been testing the appearance of the strings, but having hers appear unexpectedly compromised the experiment. Would another be more or less likely to appear when she was around?

"It's obvious _something's_ wrong, but if you don't want to talk about it..."

Could he risk it? _I seem to be under the influence of a NEXT power that has effects based on relationships._ But then he'd have to explain how he knew, and all of that was personal. On the other hand, emotional closeness seemed to be one of the triggers, or a possible trigger. "It's not that I don't want to talk about it, but... no, I suppose it is that I don't want to talk about it."

"Fair enough. There's your wine."

That was it? That was easy. Barnaby took a sip of his wine — more dry than he'd hoped, but not bad — and listened to Karina playing.

It wasn't that he disliked her. Her immaturity had annoyed him at times when he first started as a hero, and she was easy to goad. Which was, in fact, almost identical to what he could say about Kotetsu, though there were obviously variations in degree and nuance. But she'd grown up — most of them had, over the past six years, even Kotetsu — and the teasing was, he thought, largely good-natured at this point. At least on his side.

But then there was Kotetsu. Never mind jealousy, or rivalry; this odd emotional manifestation seemed to be suggesting a bond similar to his feelings for Kotetsu, and he didn't see how that was possible. How could you fall in love with someone and not notice? How had feelings for Karina had _room_ to sneak in while he loved Kotetsu?

"Handsome," Fire Emblem said.

"Yes?" He smiled, hoping it covered his startlement.

"I think you _should_ talk about it."

So he explained — a semi-physical manifestation, based on close relationships, he preferred not to describe it — and turned the wine glass around by its stem when Fire Emblem said, "So you and Tiger, hmm?"

"I didn't say that."

"Handsome, you two are partners. Who else are you that close to? It has to be him, unless you're seeing someone and you're keeping it a secret." Fire Emblem frowned. "You _better_ not be keeping it a secret," he added, his voice dropping into its always-surprising deeper register.

"No, no, it— you were right. It was Kotetsu." He took a drink of his wine. "But before I brought it up, I wanted to test it out, to see if this turned up with other relationships, or if it was exclusive to him."

"And you thought of me?" He sounded surprised. "Handsome, I didn't know you cared!"

"I thought of... several of the heroes, and a few other people I know." Sister Margaret, at the children's home — he was friendly with all the nuns and caretakers, but he especially enjoyed her company. And he'd grown close to a few of the children, though he tried not to play favorites. But he was reluctant to visit there, both because there was always the risk a NEXT effect could backfire or have unforeseen side effects, and because this was a school night and his visits always disrupted their routine. "But yes, you're one of the heroes I consider a friend."

The smile he got for that was worth the discomfort the admission had caused him, but his hands felt perfectly normal. "I'm sorry it comes as such a surprise," he mumbled, turning his focus to his wineglass, and his stringless fingers.

"You and Tiger both play it close to the chest. We'd been heroes together four years before I knew for sure about his wife, did you know? I saw the ring, of course, but he never breathed a word about family."

"Secret identities," Barnaby sighed, and drained his wine. "He... opened up a bit, today. That was what made the— the vision appear."

"Ah," Fire Emblem said, but the music drew to a close, and he turned on his bar stool to applaud. So did Barnaby which meant he was able to see Karina spot him, and see her smile — a little brighter since she'd laid eyes on Fire Emblem — freeze in place. He grinned in response. He'd been told his emotions all showed on his face, but Karina would be an abject failure at poker.

He didn't really need to look to guess that Fire Emblem would be casting a sideways glance at him, speculative and missing nothing, but he couldn't bring himself to care, not when he got a priceless reaction like that just by applauding politely.

 

* * *

 

Karina wasn't sure which of the two men was doing more to sabotage her day, but between Tiger and Barnaby, she was ready to frost over the room. She marched down the stage steps and over to the bar, hugged Nathan, and snapped over his shoulder to Barnaby, "Why are _you_ here?"

"To meet Fire Emblem," he said, just as Nathan said "I brought him."

"Is there _anyone_ who doesn't know about this place now?"

"Sky High," Nathan said helpfully.

She gave him a baleful look and leaned across the bar. "Simone! I really really need a rum and coke."

"Not Pepsi?" Barnaby asked, just to be a jerk, so she pretended not to hear him.

When she was supplied with a drink — Barnaby ordered one too — and seated, Nathan said, "Sorry, sweetie. I didn't know you didn't want to see him, or I wouldn't have invited him."

"Oh, it's not your fault," she sighed. "I'm just having a bad day. I'm glad _you_ were able to come. You aren't too short on time?"

"I do need to get going, but promise me you won't kill him after I leave? He's just too pretty."

"I won't kill him," she said, "I promise."

When Nathan was gone, with a squeeze of her shoulder and a showy air-kiss for Barnaby, she sighed, took a sip of her drink, and glanced over at the empty seat between them. Should she scoot over, or...? "You can move closer," she said. "I'm not that mad."

"I think I may leave after finishing my drink," he said. "I came to speak to Fire Emblem, and since you'd prefer not to have me here, there's really no reason to stay."

Why would he need to talk to Nathan? "You hate my music, right? So I don't see why you'd want to stay."

"I don't like Blue Rose's music," he said. He took a sip of his new glass of wine. "I'd never heard your music before. I think I like it."

"Oh. You _think_ you like it. Okay."

"I may need to stay longer to be certain," he said. "Why were you so upset that I was here? That was unexpected."

"First off, because you've always been a jerk about my music—"

"Blue Rose's music."

"—and second, because I fought with Tiger at lunch and having you show up here on top of that is the last thing I need today."

"You fought with Kotetsu?"

"It's a long story." He'd ask unless she changed the subject. "Was Nathan able to help you with... whatever it was?"

"In a way," he said, then, "Why the argument with Kotetsu?"

 _Because he's in love with somebody who's not me. Probably you. And he wouldn't even tell me._ "If I ask why you're avoiding my questions, are you just going to ask me the same thing?"

"Of course." He smiled, and she chuckled faintly. "But I'm not sure there's any point to evading... have you been seeing anything unusual lately?"

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"Visions? Hallucinations? It's the manifestation of a NEXT power, but I don't know if the version I've been seeing would look the same to you."

The pit of her stomach felt cold. So he had a red string that linked up with Kotetsu's, and she was the odd one out. And they could both _see_ it. Hell, for all she knew they'd been together for months, keeping it a secret. Kotetsu wasn't Sky High; he'd lie out of reflex to try to cover up something or keep from hurting someone's feelings. "I should get back up on stage," she mumbled, shoving her barstool back with a loud scrape. Her legs felt so numb she was surprised she didn't wobble.

"Karina," he said, grabbing her wrist. He didn't need to; she wasn't going to get away from him very fast the way she was feeling. And then he turned the full force of those unfairly green, long-lashed eyes on her, serious and sincere. "What did I say?"

"It's nothing."

He looked skeptical, but he was too used to Kotetsu's evasiveness to bother pushing, at least. "Tell me why you fought with Kotetsu, then."

Deep breath. Don't get emotional. Definitely don't cry. Looking away is all right, though. "Yeah, I've been seeing things. So has he. Strings or threads or something tied around your finger? And he knows more about it than he was willing to tell me, so I got pissed off. That's all."

"He's been seeing it too?"

She glanced at him; he looked surprised. "He told me that much. Didn't he tell you?"

Barnaby shook his head. "I've barely seen him today. What else did he tell you?"

"He said he has one on his ring finger."

"Interesting. So there's not necessarily a corresponding manifestation at the other side of the relationship — the thread just demonstrates your own feelings."

That was what he was getting from that? "And it shows that you're in love with somebody."

"Are we certain of that yet?"

"His _wife_ — I mean, I don't think he has one for Kaede, you know?" Unless he did. Maybe that was his other thread, and he wasn't in love with anybody, and she and Barnaby were as hopeless as ever. "He said he has another thread. He wouldn't say who it was about."

"He may not know." Off her frown, he continued, "I know it seems unlikely, but this is Kotetsu."

"He's oblivious, but I don't think that means he's an idiot about his own emotions."

"Possibly. I just wouldn't jump to any conclusions. He may not know, or it may relate to Kaede — it would be just like him to refuse to admit that, even if he knew."

She smiled slightly. How had he managed to comfort her in spite of herself? "You're probably right. Thanks, Bunny."

"Don't you start calling me that!"

She grinned, pulled her hand loose, and headed for the stage. She was definitely going to throw in some classical, just to show off. Even if Kotetsu really was in love with him, she could at least force Barnaby to admit she was awesome. Could she pull off that piano version of the Habanera?

 

She wasn't sure about the Habanera — she hadn't practiced it much, just toyed with it with the vague idea of showing off someday — but she was ready to weave in "Clair de Lune" and "Für Elise" among her own songs and the occasional request. At one point, pausing between pieces, she glanced out at the room and caught a glimpse of Barnaby watching her, his chin resting on one hand, a slight smile on his face. He didn't _look_ like he was sticking around just out of obligation.

Oddly, there it was again, a red thread around her left ring finger. She'd thought it had been on her pinkie before. Strange that it'd show up now, when Kotetsu was nowhere to be found. It draped over the keys — she ran through a quick arpeggio to make sure it wouldn't get caught between them, and it flowed over smoothly — then down onto the floor and along the stage.

Towards Barnaby.

Towards Barnaby and the thin trace of red on his hand.

Seriously? Did the string realize he was gay? Unless he'd needed to talk to Nathan about some kind of sexuality crisis. But surely not. She wasn't even sure he was out to any of the heroes. She wasn't totally sure he wasn't bi, but he'd never seemed remotely interested in anyone except Kotetsu. Definitely not _her,_ no matter what Kotetsu thought. Maybe he was right, and the strings just meant friendship or something. Maybe that was why he'd been talking to Nathan, to test that. Maybe she was worried about nothing, and he and Kotetsu had a string linking them that showed they were partners, and this string just showed that she and Barnaby were better friends than they liked to admit.

Maybe she was just seeing red strings everywhere because they were on her mind. She closed her eyes, and touched the keys again.

 

* * *

 

Kotetsu was still turning over in his mind what exactly he intended to say when he got to the bar. This was one of Karina's nights there — she'd cut down on the frequency of her gigs but never completely dropped them — so he might still have some time to come up with a plan during her performance. And if he didn't, maybe he could sneak out without being noticed, because for something like this, you needed a plan. _He_ needed a plan, anyway, even if other people didn't.

He owed her an explanation, and for his own sake, he wanted to figure out a way of giving that explanation without letting on that he was in love with her, because he might be a creepy old man on the inside but he didn't have to be one on the outside too. And if he got through that without her killing him, he'd need to pull it off all over again with Bunny.

He could just imagine how she felt. She'd had men his age and older creeping on her since she was fifteen, and here he was, a guy she'd considered safe, and a friend, saying _hey, guess what._

And then there was Bunny. He knew there were occasional rumors that Bunny was gay, but there were rumors about actors and celebrities like that, too. He'd never asked about it; he figured it was private, and if Bunny felt like talking about it, he'd bring it up. Hell, he had plenty of opportunities to, whenever Kotetsu teased him about having a crush on Karina. Which Kotetsu still thought he did, no matter what Bunny said. But even if he did like guys too, or instead, that didn't mean he wanted to hear his partner was into him.

And they were friends, so it wasn't like he could tell Karina he was in love with Barnaby and tell Bunny he was in love with Karina. They’d eventually compare notes.

When he stepped inside the bar, straightening his tie and glancing around to get the lay of the land, the first thing he saw was Karina, of course, up on the stage, eyes closed as she played. And then he saw the red thread , trailing down over her lap and across the floor of the stage, practically glowing. It hadn't been nearly that visible any time before. His own hands seemed bare for the moment, so he looked back at the stage, trying to track the thread. Maybe it led to someone completely different, and she had a boyfriend, and it had nothing to do with him.

It went down from the stage to the floor, so he couldn't track it beyond a certain point, but maybe it hooked up to someone in the room? He glanced over at the bar, but none of the bartenders had any glowing red strings that he could see. No customers at the bar did, either.

Then his eyes lit on... he knew that blond hair and those shoulders. Bunny's face was resting on his hand, and there was a glowing red string dangling from his index finger.

He felt himself breathe again. Good. This was good. This was how it should be. They were young, they fit together; they'd be good together. They already were. He had no call to feel disappointed, or lonely, not about this. Maybe he could tell her what he knew, the whole red-thread-of-fate story, and tell her he'd always been pulling for her and Bunny, and that'd help soften the blow, especially since she'd know he wasn't going to try to make a pass at her.

But no, they were both here at once. He couldn't just have a talk one-on-one. Abort mission. But it was too late — Bunny had sensed him looking, or something, and turned, and they were looking each other right in the eyes, and his stupid pinkie finger felt compressed, and there was a red thread on Bunny's other index finger, too. One for each hand. One for him, and one for Karina.

But it was too late to run away now, so he forced a sickly smile and moved towards Bunny. He could feel the thread hanging from his hand pulling behind him with each step. Then he saw Bunny lay both hands flat on the table's surface — not a natural position at all — and realized Bunny could definitely see the threads, too.

He was so, so screwed.

 

"So this was what Karina meant," Barnaby said, in a low voice, as Kotetsu pulled up a chair.

"Huh?"

"When she spotted me, she asked if there was anyone who didn't know about her gig here."

"Ah, yeah. Bison found this place, so he knows, and I'm guessing she eventually told Dragon Kid and Fire Emblem..."

Barnaby nodded, and Kotetsu continued, "Didn't know you knew about it, though. You been coming here a lot?"

"No," Bunny said, looking down at his hands.

Oh God no, he was going to bring it up. "Yeah, I only come every once in a while," he babbled, "but it's a nice bar, you know, they have other musicians too, and—" Kotetsu looked at his own hands. Strings on each pinkie. Still kind of glowing. One of them went over the edge of the table, and the other looked like it was draped over his shoulder. "—and they have shochu, which, y'know, a lot of places don't."

"Mm," Barnaby said absently. He picked up one of the threads and rubbed it between his thumb and forefinger, so there went Kotetsu's last hope that only he could see them. "Is there a reason you're avoiding the obvious subject at hand, Kotetsu?"

"There are reasons," he said. " _So many_ reasons. You have no idea..."

"I suppose we might as well wait until Karina can join us. She's involved, too."

"Yeah," Kotetsu sighed, slumping down in his chair.

Bunny didn't say anything for a bit. Whatever Karina was playing ended. There was a smattering of applause, and he glanced up; if she'd seen him, she wasn't showing it, as she stretched her wrists, then started on her next song.

"Here Comes the Sun." Maybe she had spotted him; he remembered playing that while she sang, at her insistence, once she found out he could play guitar. He'd sworn up and down that he was terrible, and rusty, and he wasn't even sure he hadn't sold the guitar years ago, but she'd been relentless.

"You need a drink, don't you." Bunny just sounded amused, not sympathetic, but Kotetsu would take it.

"Like you wouldn't believe."

"I'll go get one," he said. Kotetsu watched the strings trail behind him as he headed for the bar. He had string wrapped around one arm, and string looped loosely around his legs; Kotetsu was a little afraid to look down at himself. He could feel string around him, somehow, like a weight or a presence or a pressure, the same way he could feel the ones on his fingers. And if Bunny, all calm and collected and apparently not the least bit worried about all this, was that tangled up, Kotetsu had to be a complete mess.

 

He drank his shochu slowly, savoring it like a last meal. Bunny had brought back a rum and Coke for Karina, and they'd made some feeble jokes about the Pepsi-Coke thing, and Kotetsu was positive Karina had looked right at him at one point.

Her set couldn't last much longer, he thought, but that was the opposite of comforting. He wasn't a rip-off-the-band-aid kind of guy, not when it came to emotional stuff. He fidgeted with the strings, trying not to look _too_ weird to anyone who'd look his way. He was pretty sure the strings were invisible to everyone except the three of them — they were supposed to just be a figure of speech, in fact, but the figure of speech was "invisible red thread" — so he'd look like either a crazy person or a mime if anyone caught him messing with them.

"I think we'll be able to get them untangled once we leave," Bunny said, startling him.

"Oh. Yeah. I guess so." At least Bunny had a plan. Someone had to.

"Kotetsu," Bunny repeated. Kotetsu made himself look up. "Karina and I both concluded the strings mean... love. Relationships. Is there some darker meaning?"

Kotetsu shook his head. "Yeah, no, that's it. Shows who you love. There's a little more to it than that, but that's the gist."

"Then why do you look like that? Is it that painful to find out we both love you?"

The question hung in the air for a breath or two, long enough for the song to end. Everyone else was clapping, and it went on long enough that Karina was probably standing up and taking a bow. Bunny broke the eye contact and twisted in his seat to look at her and applaud, like those words were so easy to say you could just go on afterwards like you'd been talking about your drink or the weather or the traffic. Kotetsu kept looking at him, at the back of his head, the tip of his ear peeking through the curls. But he managed to shake it off before the applause petered out, and looked up to see Karina descending the stage steps.  With a string wrapped around one leg.

Moment of truth. He drew a deep breath, let it out slowly, and squared his shoulders. Bunny was smiling at her, and that kind of expression was _exactly_ why he'd always said they should get together. He'd take a picture by way of proof except the stupid strings had made it pointless.

He said that, once she was seated. "I know the strings kinda... make it all obvious, but the way you were looking at her, Bunny..."

"He looks that way at you when he thinks nobody's looking," she retorted, and he looked mournfully into his empty glass of shochu, because he needed a lot more than just that one if he was going to have to say something to comments like that.

"I think it's best if we approach this with some degree of organization," Bunny said, which wasn't a very good conversational rescue in Kotetsu's opinion.

Not Karina's either. "All right, so you've called the meeting to order," she said. "Do you have a Powerpoint, too?"

"I believe we'll need to relocate to someone's apartment if we're to untangle all of this, so if you give me ten or twenty minutes with a computer, I can throw one together."

"Oh, good. And I see you got my drink nice and watered-down for me."

"For that kind of gratitude I should have just kept the one you didn't finish on your break."

They got into one of those smirk-offs that _also_ always made him think they should be together, and this was actually a huge relief all around. This was normal. This was how the three of them always acted. Maybe nothing had to change at all.

And then Bunny said, "Why don't I start?"

Kotetsu shrugged, and Karina took a sip of her drink and said "Mmm, _watery,_ " which Bunny apparently took as approval all around. He pushed his glasses up on his nose, and began.

"As far as I can determine, the three of us are all linked to each other, and with the exception of the string that represents Kotetsu's relationship with his late wife, no one has any additional threads linking them to anyone else. Is that correct?"

"Wait. Tiger, you've got — is that why you wouldn't tell me anything at lunch?"

Feeling sick to his stomach, Kotetsu nodded. "I shouldn't have said anything, but it just slipped out, and then—"

"You mean I spent all afternoon mad at you and freaking out when I could have just made out with you in the car?"

"Wait, you—"

"I've been in love with you since I was sixteen, you dumbass!"

"But—"

"All you had to do was tell me the truth—"

Barnaby cleared his throat. Kotetsu sunk down in his chair till his shoulders were nearly level with the table's edge and his knees bumped the leg at the center of the table, but he could still feel Karina's glare. He flinched when she flashed blue, but from the clinking of her glass, she'd just made herself some ice cubes. He'd feel it if she froze part of him, right?

"I think we've all panicked a bit over the course of the day," Barnaby said. "I have to admit, I have no idea how we handle this information either."

"Yeah, that's another thing," Karina said. "Barnaby, what's with our string? I thought you were gay."

"I'd prefer if we discuss my sexuality somewhere else? In my car, if necessary."

"Okay," Karina said, and she drained her glass. Then she bent down — he felt her squeeze his knee, and hurriedly sat up in his chair — and straightened up, a few moments later, to deposit a red, faintly glowing snarl of string in the middle of the table. "This is what we're dealing with. I think we should get takeout."


	3. Chapter 3

Unfortunately, the threads had changed again, as they discovered on their first attempt to leave.  Kotetsu stood up and took two steps towards the bar’s entrance, then tripped and nearly fell on his face; Barnaby caught him by the wrist, with a hasty, "Careful, old man."  
  
"Huh," he said, a little too loudly, for the benefit of nearby tables — or, more accurately, half the bar.  "Guess I had too much to drink!"  
  
With Kotetsu back in his seat, they began experimenting, furtively moving their legs around under the table and trying to keep arm gesticulations unobtrusive. The strings didn’t seem to be tangled with the table or chairs; they were just all connected with each other, and tethered to the central snarl Karina had found.  Accordingly, they’d all have to leave together, in very close contact, and move carefully.  
  
"We’ll be fine," Kotetsu said.  "I was always good at three-legged races."  
  
"It takes two people to be good at three-legged races," Karina said, and Barnaby decided to let slide the fact there were six legs involved.  Best to choose your battles when physically tied together.

Barnaby counted himself lucky that Karina was still so annoyed with Kotetsu; he shepherded the two of them into his car, neatly bypassing the expected squabbling about who should drive. Being able to simplify the process was vital. Just crossing the parking lot was enough of a challenge, with the threads keeping them tethered closely together; no longer insubstantial, they seemed inordinately strong for their appearance.

Once all the seatbelts were securely fastened and the tangle of string settled on Karina's lap like a small radioactive animal, he put the car into gear and said, "I never told anyone I was gay. You just assumed."

"I thought you were straight," Kotetsu supplied helpfully.

Barnaby sighed. _You were both wrong_ would get them nowhere. "I didn't want you to know I was interested in you, Kotetsu. And I never bothered to correct Karina because I'm very seldom attracted to women, and I certainly wasn't about to tell her about the only current exception. Can we drop this subject, please?"

"So I'm an exception."

He could _hear_ her grin. It was probably preferable to having her take offense. "We're going to get drive-through," he said, rather than address that. "I don't want to attempt to walk any further than we have to while we're like this."

"You don't want to carry me in your big, strong arms?" Karina pouted.

"What is with you tonight? Besides, I can't carry both of you, and Kotetsu's in worse shape than you are."

"I can walk though," Kotetsu said. "We'll be fine."

That was hopelessly optimistic. Barnaby himself had string looped around his legs, and while he'd removed that on sitting down in the car, a glance down indicated that it had somehow replaced itself, which suggested that all of this mess was more emotional than physical. Karina had one full loop around her torso and some wrapped around one ankle, which didn't impede her stride but could trip her if they didn't coordinate their movements. And Kotetsu was a mess, with string wrapped around his upper body multiple times, a couple of loops around his legs, and more than one knot where loops of string crossed over each other. He was clumsy enough as it was without adding further complications.

 

In the end, Barnaby made for the Bronze Stage — Kotetsu's condo was closer, traffic would be less of an issue, and most importantly, it would silence the old man's whining and pleading. "Plus, furniture," Kotetsu argued, even though he'd already won.

"Karina has furniture."

"Karina doesn't want you two lushes drinking all her liquor," Karina said. "Just accept it, Bunny."

To add insult to injury, Kotetsu snickered at the nickname.

If you had two romantic partners, they could always outvote you. Possibly best not to begin listing the downsides to this arrangement that seemed to have been chosen for them.

One unmentioned benefit to choosing Kotetsu's home as their base for the night was the proximity to the front door; Barnaby was able to park on the street, and while the front stoop nearly defeated Kotetsu, that could happen on any night, without any help from alcohol or strings of suspicious origin. And it was true, a couch was a helpful seating arrangement when three people were literally tied together.

Barnaby dragged them all after him so he could obtain a trash bag and begin sweeping empty bottles into it, and Karina placed the bird's nest of red thread in the middle of the freshly-cleared coffee table.  Kotetsu placed the greasy paper bags of hamburgers next to it, then flopped on the couch by way of protest of Barnaby's housekeeping, struggled out of his vest despite the interference of the strings, and loosened his tie.  After Karina took a seat on one side of him, Barnaby gave in and sat on the other side.

They all looked at the knot on the table, and the array of threads trailing out of it like disconnected wires.

"Okay," Karina said. She leaned forward, rummaging in the bag. "First of all, Kotetsu," she said, handing him a burger. "Barnaby's been in love with you since forever. So have I." Barnaby accepted another hamburger, this one with a black X drawn on it in marker; he hoped that meant they'd held the pickles. "You were just too dense to notice," she concluded, daintily spreading a napkin over her knees and then sitting back to unwrap her burger.

Barnaby lifted his hamburger's bun — thankfully pickle-free, though they might have withheld onions as well. "I'm not sure what that accomplished," he said.

"Your strings re-wrapped themselves after you tried to straighten them out when you got in the car. It's an emotional thing, not just literal threads, right?"

So she'd noticed too. "It does seem that way. How does that relate to—"

"We need to get it all out on the table, right? Clear the air."

"No," Kotetsu said. "I'm allergic to cleared air. Bunny knows all about it, just ask him."

"Regrettably true." Also regrettable — he had to choose between sitting on the couch, with Kotetsu warm and comforting next to him, their knees sometimes touching, or moving to the loveseat, at a right angle to the couch, and being able to see both their faces. The latter was probably the better choice, all in all. He placed his burger on the coffee table and stood, holding his hands out like a puppeteer to let the strings hang.

"I don't know if it was as clear for both of you, but I can be fairly certain — Kotetsu, you and I are linked by my right index finger, and it's my left for you, Karina."

"With me it was always my left pinkie for Kotetsu, and Barnaby, you were my... my left ring finger? Does that mean we have to get married?"

"Agnes would die," Kotetsu said. “And then she’d come back to life just to make you let her televise it.” Barnaby moved to his new seat just to give Kotetsu a sharp look. Kotetsu grinned at him, chewing happily. He seemed to be enjoying this altogether too much.

"Surely not," Barnaby said. "It's not my left ring finger."

"That's how the red thread's supposed to work, though," Kotetsu said with his mouth full. "Originally. The idea is, like, whoever you're destined to fall in love with or marry, you're linked to them by a red thread before you ever even meet them." He wiped his mouth with a napkin, dusted his hands off, and attempted to toss the discarded wrapper into the bag; that man could dispose of a hamburger like no one Barnaby had ever seen.

"Let's worry about that later," Karina said hastily. "Tiger, you've got both your pinkie fingers?"

"Yeah. It was my left one first, so I think that's Bunny? And I saw it on my right hand in the car, so that's you, Karina." And then he took the opportunity to shamelessly gaze into her eyes, which to all appearances was having the expected effect on Karina.

Barnaby considered moving back to the couch, and settled for taking a vengefully large bite of his hamburger. It was getting cold. "The next question — Kotetsu, why not just explain yourself to Karina in the car?"

"I kinda panicked?" He rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly, which was doing nothing to untangle the threads as they stood now. "I figured she got enough of creepy old men hitting on her, and she was probably in love with somebody but no way it'd be me, and plus I nearly rear-ended somebody."

He'd worry about making sense of that course of events some other time. "You already mentioned you believed I was straight, and I assumed you were. Karina?" Was she removing her shoes? No, she was unwinding the string around her leg.

"Experimenting," she said. "I mean, I vented quite a bit already. Though not to you, Barnaby."

"No." This was where he got uncomfortable. Some things he truly preferred to discuss one-on-one, and that was impossible at the moment. "Do you... want to?"

She blushed. That was answer enough. "Never mind. I suppose it's on me, then." He cleared his throat. "I didn't... I discovered the threads this morning. And I remember thinking that just because we were friends, and I found you attractive, that didn't mean I was in love with you, no matter what Kotetsu thought."

"Gosh. So flattering."

"I'm trying to—" Did Kotetsu have his arm around her? That left him with no way to return to the couch without looking childish. This was not how he'd intended things to go. "You were the one who suggested a full explanation as our starting point."

"I guess so, yeah. So, what, am I supposed to start with how at first I thought you were just a flashy, point-grubbing prettyboy? And how you came on my radio show just to be a jackass to me?"

"Point-grubbing? That's rich coming from you. Fine, then — I thought you were a spoiled, immature little princess who was only in it for the fame."

"Whoa, whoa..." Kotetsu no longer had his arm around her — he had both hands raised in a calming gesture, but Karina was on her feet, hands on her hips.

"Spoiled? Immature? I was _sixteen!_ I was acting my age, unlike _some_ people. You knew nothing about me!"

"I did my homework on everyone! _You_ knew nothing about _me._ "

"No, I didn't, because you wouldn't tell anyone anything! We were all ready to be your friends and you pushed people away at every turn."

"And now you know exactly why I did."

"And _you_ know how damn hard I worked when I was a 'spoiled, immature little princess.'"

He probably couldn't get close enough to try to kiss her without tripping over Kotetsu, which was just as well, since her eyes were still flashing. "Yes, I do, and I know how talented you are, and I know you're a damn good hero. I may not have _realized_ I was in love with you until I walked into that bar and saw you onstage, but I already knew I liked you and respected you."

Her face had softened as he spoke, but... were there tears in her eyes? He reached out pointlessly, then took a step towards her; he heard the rustle of cloth as Kotetsu scooted back on the couch in case he needed to get by. Karina heard it too, and smiled.

"I'm not going to stroke your hero-ego even more, but... yeah, I learned too. You've changed so much, or you've stopped hiding what you were really like all along, and when I get you to admit I did something good I feel like I really earned it." She held up her left hand. "I didn't see the string on my ring finger till I decided to show off in my second set."

"That was on my account?" He wasn't sure if he was touched or amused. It could be both, though.

"I figured if I had a chance to impress you I should go all out."

A half-chuckle escaped him, and she giggled in response; he felt like he might start laughing from sheer relief, or release of tension. Before he could, though, she stepped forward, past Kotetsu, steadied herself with a hand on his arm, and planted a tentative, feather-light kiss on the corner of his mouth.

The incongruous laughter died inside him; he had a strong suspicion that was her first kiss, or half of it, and this would be absolutely the wrong moment to say or do the wrong thing. He tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear, and she smiled bashfully at him.

"And meanwhile," she said, "Tiger's trying to pretend I'm not standing on his foot."

"No, my foot's good, but my ear really itched and I didn't want to move," Kotetsu said. "Is it bad if I sort of lean around to see if that knot's any smaller?"

It was hard to judge, though. Barnaby did take the opportunity to seat himself next to Kotetsu again, while Karina stood and began consolidating their discarded food wrappers. "My leg's clear of string," she said. "It does make some kind of difference."

"Awesome!" Kotetsu leaned forward to poke it with a fingertip, as if it might react.

Barnaby stretched his legs and patted himself down. It would be nice to be able to shed his jacket, at least; Kotetsu had finally taken to heart his advice about not setting the thermostat so low in the summer.

"So you guys are up," Karina said.

"Wait, what?"

"We have to keep the momentum going, right? I'm all wiped out after that, and it's like one a.m."

"We can't just reach catharsis on command," Barnaby objected, working his arm free of one string-wrapped jacket sleeve.

"And I don't want to fight with either of you guys," Kotetsu added.

"Now that's just not true. You two fight constantly." She put the bag of fast-food waste in the same trash bag Barnaby had filled with bottles; he suppressed the urge to protest that it was meant for recyclables.

"Yeah, but about stupid stuff!"

"He's not wrong."

"So... what, we just settle in here and watch TV till someone gets emotional? I have stuff to do tomorrow!"

"What about when we need to use the bathroom?" Kotetsu asked.

"I guess if we all showered together that might jump-start some emotions," Karina mused. Barnaby found himself with a pressing need to clean his glasses.

"I meant the toilet. You think we've got enough slack in the strings for someone to stand outside?"

Silence reigned for a moment. "Are you saying we should go check?" Barnaby asked, finally.

"God, we'd _better_ be able to," Karina said. "We should at least check."

 

* * *

 

The whole excursion felt like a return to kindergarten, but Karina could at least take comfort in knowing she didn't _have_ to suggest they all shower together at some point. Though it might at least jump-start this whole emotional release thing they needed. Among other kinds of release. It was kind of appealing, but also terrifying, and it'd be nice to figure out having sex with one guy at a time before moving up to two.

She was keeping the showering-together thing in reserve, in other words. Because Kotetsu and Barnaby seemed to have lost any sense of urgency. They did their three-legged-race-style stumble over to the kitchen to obtain drinks (water for her and Barnaby, another glass of shochu for Kotetsu) and then moved much more slowly to the couch. Karina held her breath the whole time, convinced someone was going to spill something on the floor and Barnaby would make them change course just to clean it up, but the only spill landed on Kotetsu's pants and then they were safely on the couch.

Without warning, Kotetsu reached for her leg, and she squawked, but he was in fact reaching past her leg to rummage in the couch cushions. _"There_ it is," he said, holding up a remote control like he'd dug up pirate gold. Then he hit the power button, and she recognized the first bars of "Come Together" instantly.

He was grinning at her, clearly proud. "See? You read my mind, Karina."

"That was really what you had in your CD player?"

"First thing, yeah. I have it on vinyl, too, but what do you bet Bunny wouldn't let me get up to put records on if they're modern music?"

"I'd think about it," he said, from Kotetsu's other side. "Do you think it's possible we broke the curse somehow? At least some of these strings are staying sorted out when I remove them."

It was true, he had a small coil of string sitting on the coffee table in front of him, and none around his legs anymore. And then he took advantage of Kotetsu's distraction to swipe the remote and lower the volume. "I don't mind having music on," he said, "but I'd like to try to get some sleep tonight."

"Confess your love for Kotetsu first," Karina said.

"I can't just—" He pulled the remote away as Kotetsu reached for it. Karina suspected a ploy to get Kotetsu on his lap, but Barnaby actually pushed him away. "I can't do that on command," he finished. "Why don't you, if you're so eager to clear up this situation?"

"If you can't, _I_ can't! You two are partners!"

"Maybe the fact I know will be enough? I mean this stuff is personal." Kotetsu prodded at the tangled string-ball on the table with a finger. "Go ahead and get some sleep, Bunny. I'll leave the volume down, promise."

"Hmmph." Barnaby removed his glasses, placed them carefully on the coffee table, and arranged himself with his head on the arm of the couch — which pushed Kotetsu closer to Karina, which was a nice side effect — but he kept the remote.

Kotetsu gave up with a shrug, then stretched his arms out along the back of the couch. Which was pretty close to having his arm around her, like he'd had, briefly, a bit earlier, and even after all this time that was enough to speed up her heart rate. He didn't say anything more, and she noticed he'd tipped his head back and closed his eyes.

They might have her outvoted, but she wasn't going to give up. She was going to sit here, and be awake, and listen to _Abbey Road._ And maybe if Barnaby fell asleep faster than Kotetsu did she'd finally tell him how she felt about him.

And make him understand it, because she'd been telling him all this time, when she said she'd treasure a stupid cartoon character towel forever, or when she played songs she'd written about him while he was right there listening, or when she managed to believe in him even with her memory wiped, and he'd never figured it out, even if he loved her back, according to the strings. You'd think he'd at least have wishful thinking to make him see it, but not Kotetsu. She gave his oblivious face — or really his neck, the shaved parts around his beard starting to show distinct stubble — a fond, exasperated glare, and turned her attention to the string around her upper body.

The problem was, it was all around her. To get rid of it at all, she'd have to squirm around a lot on the couch, or maybe stand up, and that was bound to disturb the guys. But the string around her leg had not only come from the central tangle, it had looped back into it. None of them had really tried attacking the knot from the source — the ends that tied to their fingers.

It might not work without a loose end to follow through the whole tangle, though, and none of them had tried untying the strings. But she didn't want to be the first one to risk it. What would that even do? Make them fall out of love? Hurt them? She was curious, but not that curious.

So it might be futile, but maybe she could simplify the knot a little by tugging on one of the source threads. She probably couldn't make it worse.

She placed her right hand on the knot, then took hold of her pinkie thread and tried pulling. That actually worked — there was some give, and she felt like she was actually pulling something out of the knot — but then it stopped. Like she'd halfway expected. At least that far it functioned like a normal knot. She sat back on the couch with a huff, leaning back until her head hit Kotetsu's arm.

"No dice, huh," he said softly. He had one eye open, looking at her.

"I thought it was worth a shot. Ever since I was little I've been the one to untangle the Christmas lights at my house. Mom had me drop by to do it last winter even though I'd moved out." She kept her voice low; it'd be nice to be able to talk to him in the semi-privacy they had with Barnaby sleeping. Or maybe sleeping.

"That's parents for you," he said.

"And they probably only got me started doing it so I could feel like I was helping."

"Also parents."

God, she loved his smile. "Did Kaede have anything like that?"

"Helping with cooking — she liked to crack the eggs. We got really good at picking out bits of shell." He rubbed his face, which meant his arm was no longer behind her, unfortunately. "God, I don't know what she's gonna think of all this."

"We don't even know what we're going to do. I mean, do we all start dating each other? Just because we all know how we each feel..."

"You can't put it back in the bottle, though." His arm came down around her shoulder, which meant that now about ninety percent of her brain activity was focused on how his arm felt around her shoulder, especially where his hand rested on her arm. "And I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little lonely, even if I never wanted to admit it."

"Does my age bother you that much?" She regretted the question instantly, but all he did was squeeze her arm.

"Remember what I said about how you've really got it together? And then there's — how do I describe it." He rubbed his chin with his other hand, obviously thinking. "I didn't get into the business till I was twenty-five, but some of the things I said in my earliest appearances? I thought they sounded _so cool,_ and now I kinda cringe."

To be fair, a lot of the things that he thought sounded cool now made _her_ cringe, but that wasn't really the point. "I think I know what you mean — I keep a diary, and if I read entries from, like, last year?"

"You see what I mean? You just change so fast. Then you get to be my age and it's all slowed down. I'm not saying I'm not dumb anymore, but I'm used to my own kind of stupid."

"But what does that have to do with, y'know..." She swallowed hard. "Us?"

"I guess part of what I was thinking... young people just wear me out sometimes, you know? Not you!" he added hastily. "Just in general."

"How many other young people do you deal with?"

"Bunny's young. Younger than me." He glanced to the side. "And sleeping like a baby, in case you were worried."

"Sure he's not just faking it?"

"Want me to poke him and ask?"

She poked him in the stomach, instead, and he grabbed her hand with his free one. She wasn't about to put in much effort to get her hand out of his; it only took a few moments' fumbling to get their fingers loosely laced together. Holding hands.

"And I guess," he began, like a miracle hadn't just happened, "part of it was the changing thing — like if I let myself go ahead and fall for you, and told you how I felt about you, even if you didn't just freeze my balls off 'cause I'm a dirty old man, even if you decided to go for it — maybe you'd be sick of me in a year."

"It doesn't seem likely," she said. "I mean. Since I was sixteen."

"Yeah..." Kotetsu sighed. "But look at the two of you. You could have anyone you wanted. I just don't see what's so great about me."

 _Wow, there's nothing good about him!_ She'd nearly forgotten that — listing his flaws in her high school homeroom, trying to figure out how she was feeling. "You know, when I first figured out I was in love with you, I didn't either."

"Hah?" In the gap between songs, his half-grunt of dismay came out especially loud, and Karina winced. He left his mouth hanging open for a second, eyes wide, then snapped his mouth shut, shot a worried glance at Barnaby, then turned his wounded, puppy-dog eyes on her.

"That's what you get for fishing for compliments." _She_ could keep her tone of voice down.

"I wasn't fishing for compliments!" he retorted in an emphatic whisper. "That was harsh, Rose." But he rubbed his thumb along her upper arm and pulled her a little closer, and it took her a second to remember what she'd been talking about.

"It's true though! All I could think of was all your bad habits, and how clumsy you are, but there I was thinking about you all the time anyway. I kept trying to talk myself out of it, and then every time I came close, you'd act like an idiot to make me laugh because I seemed down. Or you'd ask to take a break because someone else was tired, or you'd do something really nice for a little kid just because."

"That's not that special. I'm a dad, I like kids."

She sighed. "You still miss the point a lot, though."

"But that's just... me."

"That's the _point!"_ Maybe she had a little trouble keeping her voice down. "I love you because you're _you,_ even though you're an idiot!"

"But... okay okay." It was good to know her glare could shut him down. She never got a chance to see what it looked like when she glared daggers at him. "Can I say one thing?" he asked.

"Okay."

"What I was going to say was, I love you 'cause you're smart and gorgeous and awesome. It just seems kind of different."

"And I've got a bad temper and I tell you all about your flaws and never mention what a great body you have or anything." How nice to know she hadn't forgotten how to blush.

"Really? I've got a great body?" He sounded incredibly pleased. "Even though I haven't gotten my six-pack back?"

"Really long legs," she mumbled. He'd missed the point. You knew all somebody's flaws and that was how you knew you loved them for real.

"Yeah, they're a pain in the ass sometimes. Hard to get pants long enough. You like 'em though?" He stretched a leg out in front of himself, apparently so she could ogle it.

"I think it's your turn," she said, looking at their joined hands instead. "I'm done, I'm not complimenting you any more for a while."

"I dunno what to say, though. I mean, you're gorgeous, you're... I'd tell you all about how hot you look in that Blue Rose suit, but I spent years trying _not_ to pay much attention to that."

"Trying and failing?" she asked hopefully.

"Yeah," he said on a sigh, and he squeezed her hand for a moment, then let it go. When he lifted it to her cheek instead, she forgot how to breathe. He was looking at her lips, but his eyes flicked back up to hers and locked on them until she let them half close. His face was very near, and she put a nervous hand on his elbow and closed her eyes.

His lips were soft on hers, and the kiss lingered before he pulled a breath away; she finally exhaled a sigh, her frantically drumming heart calming, and then she leaned in to kiss him again, eyes flickering closed. This time his lips parted, and she let hers do the same — _this is how it works,_ she thought, _it's true you sort of figure it out as you go_ — and she felt him take her bottom lip between his, felt his fingers in her hair, the stubble around his lips.

When he broke the kiss, she wasn't sure if she was relieved or disappointed; then he murmured "Better not get too carried away with Bunny right there," and mostly she felt like she'd been electrified.

"You were trying to sleep, weren't you? Before."

"Kind of hard to get to sleep now," he said, running his hand down her arm.

"I know. We could just keep kissing, couldn't we?"

"We could," he said consideringly. "But I'm pretty sure you said something about five a.m. earlier."

"I didn't think you paid much attention to that," she said. "I take naps."

"You should try to get _some_ rest, though. I mean, with any luck we won't be stuck here all day tomorrow... I got an idea."

"Okay..."

"Try laying down with your head in my lap."

She shot him a doubtful look, but he just smiled encouragingly and patted his lap like he was trying to get a cat to jump onto it, so she shifted around until she could rest her head on his knees.

She wasn't sure what she was expecting, but it wasn't the feeling of his fingers in her hair again, blunt fingernails scratching her scalp and running gently through her hair. "Huh," she said. "That is pretty relaxing."

"Always worked like a charm on me, and it put Kaede right to sleep, too," he said. She went quiet. The person who was likeliest to have used this trick to get those two people to sleep would have been his wife. Tomoe. But he didn't sound sad or pensive, just quietly pleased with himself, and a moment later, she realized he was humming. Brahms's Lullaby. Yeah, she could fall asleep to this, even after the kissing.


	4. Chapter 4

Kotetsu didn't know when he dozed off, but he knew when he woke up — when the lights went out. His head snapped up, but luckily slow reflexes and the weight in his lap kept him from doing anything stupid. He blinked, and rubbed his eyes, and the slight weight of the strings on his hands reminded him.

The weight in his lap was Karina, sound asleep, drooling a little. She'd probably be mortified, but it was adorable. When had she gotten covered up with Bunny's jacket, though? And where the hell was Bunny? He wasn't supposed to be able to go anywhere; that was the whole reason they were here on the couch.

"Bunnnyyyy..." he called experimentally, keeping his voice low so as not to disturb Karina. It was probably around five or six in the morning, going by the gray light and the crick in his neck. He'd slept for several hours. Water running in the bathroom? Okay, that explained where Bunny was, but the fact he could get that far from their leash was surprising.

When Barnaby finally came back it got a little clearer. He was carrying the knotted bundle of string with him.

"So that's how you got off the leash."

"It has a lot more give from you and Karina than I have from it," Bunny said, returning it to the coffee table. Up closer, Kotetsu could see the fabric of the couch imprinted in Bunny's face, and his hair was kind of rumpled and flattened — at least, less perfect than Kotetsu usually saw it — which was at least as cute as drooling Karina. Kotetsu rarely saw him looking like he hadn't just walked away from a photoshoot, even in mid-workout or right after a disaster, which was at least as annoying as it was attractive. He was even immune to helmet-hair, for crying out loud.

"Did you get any rest to speak of?" Kotetsu asked. "Between the music and leaving the lights on..."

"Surprisingly, yes. And I see Karina did as well."

"I think we were all kinda wiped once we got over freaking out."

"Did you and Karina manage to sort things out once I fell asleep?" Bunny asked, and Kotetsu looked down, not sure if he was bashful or ashamed or a little of each.

"Kinda, yeah, I guess." He could feel Bunny's eyes on him. "Sorry," he mumbled.

"I'll go make some coffee," Bunny said.

Kotetsu nodded, and waited till he heard Bunny moving around in the kitchen before he let his head flop onto the back of the couch.

He needed to do this. Somehow. Not just because of the string thing — because he loved Bunny, and he didn't want him thinking otherwise. Didn't want him thinking he'd lost out, or he was second-best. Because he wasn't. The whole problem was that Kotetsu couldn't have chosen, even if he'd wanted to and thought he had the right to.

A shift in Karina's weight distracted him from his thoughts. She lifted her head, then set up, squinting blearily at him. "I smell coffee," she said.

"Yeah, Bunny's making some in the kitchen."

"That's...." She seemed to be thinking very hard. "Nice," she finally concluded.

"I think you should sleep some more, Karina."

"Yeah," she said, and to his surprise and slight relief, she listed to the other side, away from his lap, settling her head on the other arm of the couch. He patted her leg, and stood up; his legs were stiff, but at least not asleep. She immediately took the opportunity to pull her feet up onto the couch and get comfortable. Smiling, he moved slowly into the kitchen, feeling like an arthritic old man, and waiting for the string to pull him up short or show some sign of tension.

Bunny looked up from the coffee pot with a surprising smile; Kotetsu had thought he was disappointed or upset somehow. "Hey," he said, softly. "Is she sleeping again?"

"Yeah. Must've really needed it."

"I know the feeling," Bunny said. "Kotetsu, you don't need to feel... guilty, or whatever that was."

So he had noticed. "Maybe I don't _need_ to..."

"I love you."

Weird how it still felt like getting hit by a bolt of lightning. "I, uh," he said with an uncomfortable chuckle. "I thought we agreed we couldn't just do this on command?"

"Of course we can't. But it's still true, and I've been wanting to say it for at least as long as Karina has."

"Really? Jeez. Since when?"

"Do you remember the time we fought Lunatic at the Hero Academy?"

He hadn't really been expecting an answer, let alone one that exact. "Yeah." He rubbed his shoulder, remembering rather than feeling the scar on his shoulder, now a white and faintly shiny streak he barely noticed most of the time. "I remember."

Barnaby nodded, and opened the cabinet for coffee mugs.

"I... dunno when it was for me. I'm sorry. It kinda snuck up on me, you know?"

"I know. The fight with Lunatic was the start of it. I don't know exactly when the process... finalized."

"We're not computers, Bunny." Kotetsu watched him pouring coffee. "That's what scares me about all this."

"All this?"

"The three of us. What if I fuck it up? What if one of us gets all jealous? What if, like... you dump me but we're both still with Karina? I love you guys. I don't want to lose you."

"You love us, so you can't be with either of us, let alone both."

"Well it sounds stupid when you say it like that." He moved to squeeze past Bunny to reach the fridge, which also crossed their strings yet another time, like they hadn't produced enough problems without real, physical knots. Bunny wouldn't use the creamer Kotetsu kept around — too chemical-y for him — but Kotetsu liked his coffee beige and he didn't especially care how it got that way. He also kind of liked squeezing past Bunny, or at least, he was now admitting to himself that he liked it. "I just don't wanna screw things up."

"Kotetsu, why do you think neither of us ever told you how we felt? We both know exactly how that feels." Time for Kotetsu to squeeze past again, this time with Bunny facing him; their faces weren't that close, but close enough that Kotetsu suddenly realized he probably had terrible morning breath. While Bunny no doubt smelled amazing because Bunny always smelled amazing, and looked perfect, even when his face was still shedding the couch-print.

"I know," he said. "I know, I'm just... freaking out again, I guess."

"Don't," Bunny said, reaching for him, and that was how Kotetsu ended up hugging his partner for dear life in his tiny kitchen with a bottle of hazelnut coffee creamer still clenched in one hand. He buried his face in Bunny's neck and just breathed him in, squeezing his eyes shut; this moment was too perfect to include his sink full of dirty dishes. Figured that Bunny would face away from those to hug him.

After a moment, Bunny's arms loosened around him, but he only pulled back far enough that they could look at each other; Kotetsu thought about taking off the glasses, but that would mean letting go with one arm, and also having time for second thoughts about the state of his breath, so instead he just closed his eyes and kissed him, soft and sweet and chaste, before he let go.

"Sorry, but, y'know, morning breath..."

"Not that coffee really improves it."

"Good point," Kotetsu said, and kissed him again, open-mouthed and eager, half-expecting Bunny to bite him or something. Instead, he kissed back, his hands flattening out against Kotetsu's back and tongue probing tentatively past Kotetsu's teeth, and Kotetsu gently pushed forward until Bunny's back was against the counter. This was set to go horribly wrong in all kinds of ways, he thought, but he couldn't bring himself to care; it was all too new and amazing, too different from everyone else he'd ever kissed, a flat, hard chest under his hand, stubble against his lips, an answering hardness pressed against his own.

He made himself pull away, finally; he was breathing hard, but so was Bunny. "We should probably, uh, save this for later," he managed.

"Mm. Good idea. Probably." Bunny actually didn't sound that convinced. Kotetsu chose to be secretly smug about that.

"We should... coffee."

"Yes. Coffee." Barnaby took off his glasses to clean them. "I don't suppose you have any half-and-half in the fridge? Cream? Anything?"

"Sorry. It goes bad too fast."

"I thought as much."

"Hope we didn't get the strings too tangled up while we were making out," Kotetsu said. He hadn't worried about it with Karina, but there'd been hugging and moving and... "Did the knot disappear?"

"It was already small."  Barnaby glanced at a spot on the counter opposite him, across from the dishes, that Kotetsu had totally ignored.  "No, you're right.  It's gone."    
  
And no additional tangles here in the kitchen.  Kotetsu tried angling his hands to bring his pinkie finger strings together, but they never intersected, just passed through each other like water.  "Will you look at that.  We fixed it!"  
  
"I wonder how long the strings will last," Bunny said.  
  
  
  
They lasted long enough for Kotetsu to go shower and shave and change clothes.  The strings didn’t seem to get wet, he found, but this wasn’t new information to Bunny, either, since Kotetsu emerged from the shower to find him washing the dishes.  "If you hate washing them so much, you should just buy a dishwasher, Kotetsu."  
  
"You don’t have to wash them!  I got plenty of clean dishes."  
  
" _Someone_ has to wash them, and apparently it won’t be you."    
  
"Well, no, not if you do it for me."  
  
The strings lasted through Kotetsu’s abortive attempt to make breakfast; Barnaby rejected the bacon on ageist grounds, and went to go buy food.  He still had strings on his fingers when he returned.  So did Karina, who’d slipped off to take a shower and then decided to short-circuit both their brains by sitting around wearing only a towel.  "This is a big towel!" she protested.  "I wear about this much onstage, just arranged differently."  
  
"It’s just different," Kotetsu tried to explain.    
  
"Extremely," Barnaby agreed.  
  
"Then give me coffee and I’ll go get dressed."  
  
"I wasn’t _complaining_ ," Kotetsu tried to clarify, and Barnaby said that he didn’t see what coffee had to do with her stage of undress, but she ignored them both, took her coffee, and vanished into the bathroom again.    
  
The strings lasted while Kotetsu scrambled all the eggs he owned and some of the new eggs Bunny had purchased, and fried the bacon, and served it up proudly, proof that he could cook something besides fried rice, thank you both very much.    
  
The strings were still there when Karina checked her cellphone, apparently for the first time that day, and started laughing.    
  
"Okay," she said, "you know I have the Blue Rose Pwitter account?  Someone chirped me — she said she met you at the BTB shoot, Barnaby.  Used her power on you accidentally, but now she knows what it does."  
  
"Too late!" Kotetsu called from the kitchen.  
  
"Did she say how she found out?"  
  
"It's _Pwitter_ , Barnaby.  No room. She might have it on her own account, but all she told me was that it was a long story."  
  
"Somehow I'm not surprised."

 

The strings finally faded out at some point after breakfast, while everyone was cleaning up, gathering their things, and getting ready to go about their days.  "I'm just going to say Bunny had a hangover, if anyone asks," Kotetsu said.  
  
"Cold.  I had a cold," Bunny corrected.  
  
"Me too.  I probably got it from him," Karina said.  "I think all I really missed was a salon appointment, though — I can reschedule that.  What about you guys?"  
  
"Nothing too important," Kotetsu said breezily.  
  
"No, just a meeting with Lloyds," Barnaby said.  "Not important at all."  
  
"Nobody else can see the strings, right?" Karina asked.  
  
"I... you know, I felt like something was missing a second ago," Kotetsu said, lifting his hand to look at it.  "I guess all good things come to an end."  
  
"Good?"  
  
"Hey, it worked out okay, right?"  
  
"I do almost miss them," Karina said.  "Almost. It's like when you take off high heels."  
  
"I have no idea how that feels," Bunny said.  "Wrong metaphor for this audience."  
  
"Taking off a ring?  Never mind.  We still don't know what we're going to... you know, _do_. I mean, who dates who?  Do we just keep hanging out as the three of us?"    
  
"I see no reason why we should stop, schedules permitting."  
  
"Um.  I was going to do the asking out on dates thing one-on-one," Kotetsu said.  He'd been working out the speeches in his head.  "Like.  For both of you.  If that's okay.  But now the surprise is kind of ruined, so I dunno what to do next."    
  
"You basically just asked us both now," Karina said.  
  
"No I didn't!  I had _places_ in mind, restaurants and plans and stuff.  You know, like 'I have tickets for this thing, are you free that evening,' all... organized."  Admittedly in his head that part of the speech was kind of fuzzed out without details.  But it was going to be awesome once he had the details.  He knew of a really nice restaurant by the marina, which was where he and Bunny met, after all.  And he was going to take Karina to a concert as soon as he heard about a good concert and got tickets.  But you couldn't brag about the date before it even happened.    
  
"Something to look forward to, then," Barnaby said, in that dry tone that always meant Kotetsu was being made fun of, though not always as obviously as he was right now.  Karina giggled.    
  
"One thing I'm going to say," Karina said.  "All elaborate plans aside, Tiger, you're going to tell me the first weekend day you're free, and we're going to just spend the day together, without worrying about fancy restaurants and stuff that'll take you months to plan.  Okay?"  
  
Crap.  She was right about the planning.  "Yes ma'am," he said.  
  
"And Barnaby.  You're taking me to the opera.  I've never been and I had a professor make this giant fuss about how it's not the same if you're not there watching it live."  
  
"Your professor's not wrong," he said.  "I'll take a look at the schedule.  The season doesn't start until the fall."  
  
"Huh.  Okay.  Pick a good one for me?"  
  
"I think they usually open the season with a beginner-friendly production.  And speaking of beginners..."  Kotetsu had a slight sinking feeling in his stomach as Barnaby turned to look at him.  "Do you think you could bring yourself to attend once with me?  Just to give it a chance?"  
  
Like it was possible to say no to someone that beautiful when they were smiling at you like that.  "Yeah," he said, feeling a little light-headed.  "Yeah, I can do that."    
  
  
  
  
They'd all need to ride together back to the bar, and their cars, but Barnaby was the first one out the door.  Karina hung back, and as Kotetsu locked up, she paused at the foot of the steps.  "Tiger," she asked, sounding awfully plaintive and young.  "Do you think this can work?"  
  
He shoved his keys in his pocket.  "Some folks make it work, so... probably?  I dunno.  I never tried.  But it's like..."  He descended the steps, trying to think about how to put it.  "I figured I was lucky to fall in love with just one person that loved me back.  It... worked out, you know?  I wouldn't give up having married her for anything, no matter how much it hurt like hell at the end."  
  
She nodded, and then she reached out and grabbed his hand, lacing her fingers through his.  He squeezed her hand, not that they had very far to go; Barnaby had the car running.  "But you know, we had solid proof I still love the first person I ever loved.  I think I'm a pretty good bet for the long haul."  
  
She grinned, and folded herself into the backseat of the car before he could.  "Just for you, Kotetsu," she said.  "Legroom."  
  
"I love you," he declared happily, throwing himself into the front seat of Bunny's car.  



End file.
